LIFE’S INSPIRATION: “…The LORD said, `I have indeed seen the misery of my people… I have heard them crying out… and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them… (Exodus 3: 7-8, the Holy Bible).

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BEST WAY TO COMMEMORATE EDSA REVOLUTION: Perhaps the best way to remember how the EDSA People Power 1 Revolution really came about is to read the book “Laban His Story”, written principally by former Tarlac Rep. Jose Cojuangco Jr. and launched at the Cojuangco ancestral house in Dasmarinas Village, Makati City last Friday, February 25, 2011.

I have not read the entirety of that book yet as I am writing this column, but the few pages that I browsed through literally brought me face to face with the history of a people, long shackled by a regime widely-perceived to be repressive and oppressive at the same time, coming out of their doubts and fears upon the insistent prodding of personalities who believed enough was enough.

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“LABAN, HIS STORY”: Instantly, the following passages marking the end of “Laban His Story”, written by the eminent Filipino writer Nick Joaquin, has become a favorite of mine: “Let us come to an end with a return to the start. It’s the beginning of the election campaign of 1978. Summertime. Marcos time. Martial law. Early evening. A plaza in Metro Manila.

“Peping Cojuangco has arranged this miting where Laban is to present its 21 Metro candidates for parliament. The stage is set, the lights are on, and the mikes are ready. But there’s no audience. The plaza is bare, a stark desert. On the stage step the candidates, one by one, to say their say, and no public to hear them. Where are the people?

“Peping Cojuangco decides to walk around the neighborhood and investigate. Nobody on the streets. Nobody seemingly at home either. No sign of activity indoor. All the windows are dark-ah, but not empty! Peping Cojuangco detects presence: shadows moving, shadows leaning forward, shadows turned towards the miting on the plaza.

“The Laban candidates onstage are not speaking in vain. They are being listened to. They are heard. They have an audience. Peping Cojuangco returns to the plaza exuberant.

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‘LABAN’: REAL ORIGIN OF PEOPLE POWER: “ `The 20 brave candidates who could stump (Ninoy, of course, couldn’t) might think they were speaking before a bare plaza but actually they had a large audience they couldn’t see. So I decided to change our broadcast system. Instead of installing loudspeaker on the plaza, I installed them in the neighborhoods round about…’

“It worked. The `attacks and arguments’ emboldened a public too cowed to listen save in the darkness of window and home. Presently people were…even stepping out of their doors and going to the plaza to listen…

“And ultimately they had become too inspirited they were applauding, cheering, and raising a clenched fist, singing Bayan Ko, flashing the L-sign, and joining in the chant of La-ban! La-ban! La-ban… Laban had pulled. Laban had led. Laban had prompted. And a nation has responded. That was the origin of People Power…”